Congressman proposes textbook bill to cut costs

Buying textbooks is usually the bane of back-to-school shopping for college students. Every year, students spend hundreds of dollars on books that they may hardly ever use, only to get paid back half of the cost of their books upon returning them.\nIn an attempt to make higher learning more accessible, Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., proposed an amendment to the College Access and Opportunity Act of 2005 that aims to ensure that textbooks are priced fairly. \n"Congressman Wu's amendment will highlight how the rise in college textbook pricing contributes to the overall costs of higher education," Jillian Schoene, Wu's press secretary, said.\nThe amendment, which offers a variety of ways that textbook expenses can be reduced, won the approval of the bill's committee last Thursday and is waiting to be "put on the House calendar" for a review and vote, Schoene said.\n"Congressman Wu is hopeful that publishers, faculty, bookstores and colleges will begin to work together to make textbooks more affordable for students," Schoene said.\nWu's amendment proposes that students should be able to buy textbooks and additional materials, such as CD-ROMs and workbooks, separately to avoid the high prices that publishers and bookstores put on the products when they are packaged together. In addition, the amendment suggests that publishers provide faculty with information about how long they intend to publish a certain edition, what makes the edition different from past editions and the estimated price. Wu's amendment encourages professors to consider prices when selecting learning materials and encourages universities to implement textbook rental, lending and buy-back programs.\nTim Lloyd, the textbook manager at TIS College Bookstore, thinks that many of those principles are already being practiced. \n"College bookstores, faculty and publisher representatives should always work together to make sure the most cost effective methods are being used to provide their teaching materials, and I believe this is currently being done in most cases on the Indiana University campus," Lloyd said. "I believe that most faculty are aware of the cost of their course materials and make intelligent choices based on several factors, including price."\nLloyd thinks that the amendment would neither hurt business for bookstores nor help students save money in most cases. He also strongly believes that a professor's main reason for selecting a certain textbook should be the quality of the learning material.\n"If faculty make their decision based on cost over quality of materials or comprehensive study, then (students will) absolutely (not benefit from the amendment)," he said.\nSophomore Colleen McConahay agrees with Lloyd. Although she thinks that all of the books she has bought are "overpriced," she thinks that Wu's amendments would make only a "marginal" difference in what students pay.\n"I agree that textbooks are too expensive, but I don't think he suggested anything that would really help," she said. "We already have buy back programs and things like that."\nMcConahay thinks that if the government wants to reduce costs for students, they should make regulations about the actual prices of textbooks. \n"I think if they had regulations that say that (bookstores) can only mark up a book so much (from the original cost), it would keep the bookstores from overcharging students," she said.\nAlthough the amendment will not change for now, Wu may "continue to pursue legislation" after he receives a report he requested from the Government Accountability Office that investigates the rise in the price of textbooks and the business practices of the publishing industry, according to a July 22 press release. The results of the report should be released in early August.